Google on the warpath? A heads up...

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Neil Morgan

Hey guys

I don't use Adwords much because my organic listings are pretty good. And I haven't changed my Adwords or my site content for quite some time.

Yet today they sent me a generic email about "violations" in my content that could get my account suspended.

Of course, they managed to take this month's payment first.

I wrote back and told them to send the specifics, not a generic email that tells me nothing I can work with. Not that I expect a reply.

Anyway, I'm not that bothered because it's not something my business depends on.

But for those who depend on Adwords to drive traffic, be aware. Something's changed and, at least in my case, it wasn't my site or my Adwords campaigns.

Cheers,

Neil

Neil, Google is getting into affiliate marketing (another thread somewhere
on it) and looking to simply wipe out the competition.

I doubt there is anything you could do to fix the "problem" if you know
what I mean.

Google - Do No Evil - Yeah, right!

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Matt.Lake

14 years ago

I'd still try and make sure your acount doesn't get suspended. Once it's gone, it's good.

Even if your business doesn't depend on it now, you never know how neccessary it will be for you in the future.

Adwords is still one of the best traffic methods in my opinion... if it suits your business.

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Neil Morgan

14 years ago

Ah, Steve that could explain it.

Matt - I'm not in the business of guessing games. So I'm not planning on making random changes in the hope they solve an unspecified problem. I asked them what the problem is. If they tell me, I can work with that. If they don't, I'll not lose any sleep over it. Putting the success of your business in the hands of someone else is always going to be risky. So, as far as I can, I don't.

Cheers,

Neil

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Quentin

14 years ago

Usually when you log into your account it tells you where the error is.

I think that post about affiliates is crap. Just gutter sniping.

It is their business and if we don't like it move on. Me personally I think they do a great job and most people who bitch about them strayed outside their TOS and got caught or just like pulling down the tall popies because they can't do any better themselves.

Quentin

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Steven Wagenheim

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Quentin

Usually when you log into your account it tells you where the error is.

I think that post about affiliates is crap. Just gutter sniping.

It is their business and if we don't like it move on. Me personally I think they do a great job and most people who bitch about them strayed outside their TOS and got caught or just like pulling down the tall popies because they can't do any better themselves.

Quentin

Well, the man has spoken. I guess it's time to just close up this thread. :rolleyes:

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tpw

14 years ago

Google's Do No Evil mantra appears to be a beautiful insight into how to brainwash the masses. People think because Google says it, that means that Google does not evil.

Personally, I don't think Google really does anything really evil, but I find it interesting how many people blindly defend them...

But anyone who thinks Google is looking out for us is deluding themselves... Google is only looking out for Google's bottom line, period.

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tryinhere

14 years ago

Neil if you can give a little more info on your account, not specifics but in general i should be able to sort it for you.

for example do you have any q 1 poor rated keywords ? if so those would be a start to see where they are landing

do you have any one page land sites for your links, that would be another place to start. any rebill offers or cpa stuff ?

pm if you want or skype

I have not heard anything about the affiliate stuff, but i can say i have had no bad runs so far.

As this thread was going i uploaded a new version of my guide, see sig, this was happening anyway so just good timing, it has a list of things you can check, i hope it helps.

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naonline

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Neil Morgan

Hey guys

I don't use Adwords much because my organic listings are pretty good. And I haven't changed my Adwords or my site content for quite some time.

Yet today they sent me a generic email about "violations" in my content that could get my account suspended.

Of course, they managed to take this month's payment first.

I wrote back and told them to send the specifics, not a generic email that tells me nothing I can work with. Not that I expect a reply.

Anyway, I'm not that bothered because it's not something my business depends on.

But for those who depend on Adwords to drive traffic, be aware. Something's changed and, at least in my case, it wasn't my site or my Adwords campaigns.

Cheers,

Neil

Mike - I received the same email in response to a query I sent them. I'd been running a successful campaign for months with a QS of 10/10 then suddenly my "keyword isn't triggering any ads" but my QS is still 10/10

They are doing more manual reviews and it looks like they kill the whole account if they choose to.

I certainly wasn't doing anything dodgy or outwith their TOS.

Quentin - no it doesn't tell you where you've gone wrong and they will not help you identify the problem. They are losing the plot. If you are an affiliate using adwords then it's a matter of time before you have the same problem.

Even Perry Marshall seems to have moved to Facebook!

Nick

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Zach Booker 14 years ago

Originally Posted by naonline

Even Perry Marshall seems to have moved to Facebook!

Because Facebook loves affiliates, too. :rolleyes:

Cheers,

Zach
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- naonline 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Zach Booker
  
  Because Facebook loves affiliates, too. :rolleyes:
  
  Cheers,
  
  Zach
  
  I was asserting the difficulty with google not the advantages of facebook.
  
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MarkAse

14 years ago

lol Do no evil. I doubt anyone has ever said that with a straight face about other companies, let's remember despite its efforts to paint itself to the contrary, Google's only responsibility is to continue to find ways to grow both in terms of size and profit for shareholders and employees....this isn't a federal government.

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odlanor9

14 years ago

Neil -

I ran into the same issue with my account, my keywords were minimally searched for and my page rank was low due to search relevancy.

If anything, I would recommend pausing those campaigns or adgroups because once your account is gone, you cannot get it back.

Once I changed around a few things on my capture page, my relevancy went up, as did my quality score.

I stopped getting those nasty, general emails from google and i'm in the clear for now.

Hope this helps and let me know if you need more specifics.

Orlando

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Neil Morgan

14 years ago

Neil if you can give a little more info on your account, not specifics but in general i should be able to sort it for you.

Thanks, but to be honest, I'm not that bothered.

They actually saved me a bunch of money a while back when they removed all the paid listings apart from the first page. Now is looks like they're going to save me some more.

If they don't want my business any more (but won't tell me why) then I'm sure not going to run after them.

It's just not a big issue for me - I've never relied on Google.

Cheers,

Neil

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Black Hat Cat

Banned 14 years ago

Originally Posted by Neil Morgan

Hey guys

I don't use Adwords much because my organic listings are pretty good. And I haven't changed my Adwords or my site content for quite some time.

Yet today they sent me a generic email about "violations" in my content that could get my account suspended.

Of course, they managed to take this month's payment first.

Neil

What? They took payment for clicks/traffic they sent you? Those *******s!

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mojojuju 14 years ago

Sky falling again?

(Going to post a sidewiki entry about this right now.)
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Steven Wagenheim 14 years ago

Originally Posted by Black Hat Cat

What? They took payment for clicks/traffic they sent you? Those *******s!

I have to admit...that's funny.
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Rob Howard

14 years ago

I'm so glad that I don't have Google problems...yet.

They sent me 1,119 visitors today at 5 cents a click...so...

Rob

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TrueLifeWealth

14 years ago

I got the same email today. Not sure what is the problem with my site either as it is a simple blog using a few text link ads in posts.

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JayXtreme

14 years ago

I think it's good that Google does this.

It makes it all the better for those of us who spend hours, and thousands of dollars perfecting ad campaigns to run to Google Adwords T.O.S.

I've been slapped once or twice by Google, in many years of PPC advertising, and after my initial reaction of "those Googlin' *******s are out to get me"... I always, always find that it's entirely my fault for becoming too relaxed about a campaign, keywords, site or something at my end.

They have pretty stiff lines to tow.... but it's worth it, and it is their business, so either play the game, or get goin'!

Peace

Jay

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Dan C. Rinnert

14 years ago

Originally Posted by JayXtreme

I've been slapped once or twice by Google, in many years of PPC advertising, and after my initial reaction of "those Googlin' *******s are out to get me"... I always, always find that it's entirely my fault for becoming too relaxed about a campaign, keywords, site or something at my end.

They have pretty stiff lines to tow.... but it's worth it, and it is their business, so either play the game, or get goin'!

The problem is when they cannot tell you what you've done wrong.

For example, I've done ads for clients for local newspapers. If they find something unacceptable about the ad, they will actually tell me what it is. They don't just point to their ad guide and tell me to figure it out for myself.

I had a similar situation with AdSense once. They stopped serving ads on one of my sites because two articles they looked at didn't fit their guidelines. But, they couldn't tell me if it was just those two articles that didn't fit their guidelines, or if there were others. All I got was a very vague reply that didn't help in the least. I ended up removing the whole site from AdSense because I couldn't make heads or tails out of what Google wanted and they couldn't provide specific answers.

It worked out for me because I ended up selling direct ads that earned me more than AdSense did.

It's the lack of specificity that bugs me. If I know the specific problem, I can address it. If I don't know what the specific problem is, I can only guess. And, with Google, that's like playing Russian roulette with your AdSense or AdWords account.

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TrueLifeWealth

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Dan C. Rinnert

The problem is when they cannot tell you what you've done wrong.

For example, I've done ads for clients for local newspapers. If they find something unacceptable about the ad, they will actually tell me what it is. They don't just point to their ad guide and tell me to figure it out for myself.

I had a similar situation with AdSense once. They stopped serving ads on one of my sites because two articles they looked at didn't fit their guidelines. But, they couldn't tell me if it was just those two articles that didn't fit their guidelines, or if there were others. All I got was a very vague reply that didn't help in the least. I ended up removing the whole site from AdSense because I couldn't make heads or tails out of what Google wanted and they couldn't provide specific answers.

It worked out for me because I ended up selling direct ads that earned me more than AdSense did.

It's the lack of specificity that bugs me. If I know the specific problem, I can address it. If I don't know what the specific problem is, I can only guess. And, with Google, that's like playing Russian roulette with your AdSense or AdWords account.

This is exactly the problem I'm having at the moment. They cut out a portion of their TOS and slapped it in the email and yet it covers so much and is so vague its very difficult for me to figure out what needs to be changed on my site.

If I don't hear back from them by the end of the day I'm going to have to pull the campaign all together to avoid risking my adwords account =(

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rts2271 14 years ago

Google has survived this long because of deep pockets and tons of free services. As they now evolve into a SAAS company they are about to run aground. The sandbar is named customer service, and they have no experience with it, no system in place for it in fact it is amazingly missing from virtually every product. Their fanboys right now are their CSR's and that system is beginning to show stress fractures.
Google, the Microsoft of 2010. Microsoft, the apple of 1990's. Apple, lol still the same.
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Zach Booker 14 years ago

Originally Posted by Dan C. Rinnert

The problem is when they cannot tell you what you've done wrong.

You don't need to spend the 100k monthly minimum (or whatever it is now) to get a Google rep. Biggest thing with any traffic source is not working with the ad platform, but an ad rep to make sure everything you do gets through smoothly.

...Unless you get a Facebook ad rep - then they'll just bitch at you and stop all your campaigns (yes, ones already running). They're as useless as they come.
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Neil Morgan

14 years ago

What? They took payment for clicks/traffic they sent you? Those *******s!

Yes, I can see how that might have looked. It was actually meant as an observation on the order of events.

1. Take my money for stuff they don't like me doing but don't elaborate.

2. Send me an aggressive email telling me to change my ways without saying what I'm doing wrong, while still being happy to accept more money while I'm left guessing what I'm supposed to do next.

I'm the customer, right? Shouldn't they be defining in detail what I'm paying for and why? Or maybe I'm just supposed to be grateful that they'll accept my business.

Cheers,

Neil

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Google on the warpath? A heads up...

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